New PC Build

**Xtreme2damax** · July 14th, 2008, 20:39

Well with me going back to college it's time for a new PC. I'll be applying the refund I get back from financial aid in addition to me considering accepting a loan towards a new PC build.

I will be re-using some old parts out of an old PC such as my Dual-Layer DVD burner and Hard Drive until I get more money to purchase a new HDD/DVD-RW.

Here is a basic wishlist of 50% - 75% of the parts I need to get up and running:

Newegg.com - Once You Know, You Newegg

I still have a heatsink, fans, tidbits to secure/screw everything in, Soundcard to worry about.

What would you recommend for a heatsink/fan combo for that setup that will keep everything nice and cool?

__________________

**refraction** · July 14th, 2008, 20:54

Newegg.com - Thermalright Ultra-120 CPU Cooling Heatsink - CPU Fans & Heatsinks
+
Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING AF12025 PWM 120mm Case Fan - Case Fans

certainly a win, providing your case is big enough

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**Chrono Archangel** · July 14th, 2008, 21:01

Do you really need that motherboard? what features are you going to use that a 200$ mobo wouldnt give you? (seeing as youre getting DDR2 memory...)

Other than that it looks good. Are you planning on OCing alot?

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**Xtreme2damax** · July 14th, 2008, 21:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrono Archangel

Do you really need that motherboard? what features are you going to use that a 200$ mobo wouldnt give you? (seeing as youre getting DDR2 memory...)

Other than that it looks good. Are you planning on OCing alot?

Well I thought I would go with a board capable of Tri-SLI to help future proof myself a bit as it's unlikely I'll probably be seeing money like this again for a while.

Can you suggest a cheaper SLI/Tri-SLI motherboard that will last a while with a nforce 790i chipset?

I do plan on overclocking a bit however nothing too extreme as I don't want to wind up ruining any components.

The ATI card is a temporary solution that should give decent performance on my current games for the best price. I plan on replacing it with a couple decent spec'd Nvidia cards in SLI later on.

What fan would you recommend for the heatsink refraction recommended?

__________________

Last edited by Xtreme2damax; July 14th, 2008 at 21:31..

Cheesus · July 14th, 2008, 21:32

Save yourself some money off the motherboard and downgrade the CPU to a E8400, and buy yourself another 4850. The difference in overclocking headroom is negligible, but the performance in games will be very noticeable, especially at higher resolutions (or in Crysis).

EDIT: Nvidia really isn't the best option anymore. It'd make more sense to buy a 8800GT for now, and when the 4870X2 comes out buy that. The 8800GT will do wonders in emulators (you really don't need more juice), and for games the 4870X2 will swamp anything Nvidia has to offer. All in all, for the motherboard the X48 is a more stable chipset anyways, so you can even crossfire a 4870X2 if you've really lost your mind.

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**refraction** · July 14th, 2008, 21:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

Well I thought I would go with a board capable of Tri-SLI to help future proof myself a bit as it's unlikely I'll probably be seeing money like this again for a while.

Can you suggest a cheaper SLI/Tri-SLI motherboard that will last a while with a nforce 790i chipset?

I do plan on overclocking a bit however nothing too extreme as I don't want to wind up ruining any components.

The ATI card is a temporary solution that should give decent performance on my current games for the best price. I plan on replacing it with a couple decent spec'd Nvidia cards in SLI later on.

What fan would you recommend for the heatsink refraction recommended?

If the ATi card is a temp solution, why not save yourself a bit of cash and get an 8800GT which is about half the price until you can afford the Nvidia Tri-SLiness, it will perform more than well enough in most modern games at high res's, no need to blow an aboslute fortune on a card thats temporary.

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**Xtreme2damax** · July 14th, 2008, 21:47

I have a question, how good are the ATI cards specifically the 4850/Newer ATI cards when compared to Nvidia's latest offering at nearly double the price of a 4850?

What is the "King" of benchmarks and offers the best performance per dollar ratio?

For some reason all this time I was under the impression that Nvidia was the best choice to go with.

What would be a wiser decision for a motherboard?

__________________

**refraction** · July 14th, 2008, 21:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

I have a question, how good are the ATI cards specifically the 4850/Newer ATI cards when compared to Nvidia's latest offering at nearly double the price of a 4850?

obviously the GTX280 is quicker, but for the money, it isnt justified.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

What is the "King" of benchmarks and offers the best performance per dollar ratio?

8800GT for like $150 gets 8800GTX performance (nearly, about the same with some OCing) but for that price, you cant go wrong. Itll run all modern games (except crysis) at full speed on max settings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

For some reason all this time I was under the impression that Nvidia was the best choice to go with.

Well they have been on top for a while, but ATi have always had a good price tag for the performance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

What would be a wiser decision for a motherboard?

A wiser choice would be a P35/45 based motherboard. Im running the Abit IP35-Pro atm, blinding motherboard, good overclocking too. But if you want SLi, i couldnt say, the Asus boards are usually pretty good, maybe even a DFI board.

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**Chrono Archangel** · July 14th, 2008, 21:53

Dunno why you would go for 3PCI-16... 2 should be plenty enough but like ref said, the Asus boards are prtty solid and are cheaper.

NCIX.com - Buy ASUS P5N-T Deluxe 780I SLI LGA775 ATX DDR2 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 1PCI GBLAN Motherboard - P5N-T Deluxe In Canada.

That board is only DDR2 however but seeing as your grabbing 4GBs of DDR2 I dont think you were planning on upgrading later?

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runawayprisoner · July 14th, 2008, 22:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

I have a question, how good are the ATI cards specifically the 4850/Newer ATI cards when compared to Nvidia's latest offering at nearly double the price of a 4850?

Good until you touch OpenGL rendering... specifically in 3Ds Max or Maya... and that's when the fun with issues and problems start...

For gaming, though, they are decent.

Quote:

What is the "King" of benchmarks and offers the best performance per dollar ratio?

4870X2 specifically for benchmarks, no more, no less. (Stressing the word "benchmark" here.)

Quote:

For some reason all this time I was under the impression that Nvidia was the best choice to go with.

They are. If you want everything to run right and not fast.

Quote:

What would be a wiser decision for a motherboard?

Anything that fits your budget and your needs. Nothing so fancy like P45 or X48.

And yeah, I know... PCI-Express 2.0... blah blah blah... double bandwidth, dual-channel memory modules, "high" overclocking potentials, blah blah blah...

Look, are you building a 4GHz daily system or a 9GHz suicide system? And by the way, the rest are all marketing hypes.

**Xtreme2damax** · July 14th, 2008, 22:11

How is a 9600GT compared to an 8800GT?

__________________

**refraction** · July 14th, 2008, 22:17

Ars Technica reviews the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT: Page 2

that should answer your question

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Princess Garnet · July 14th, 2008, 22:18

Cut the E8500 to an E8400. It's not worth an extra 1/4 the cost for the slight extra OC headroom you won't realize ever outside of the few using watercooling to take it to frequencies too dangerous for it anyway just to push it (it won't be usable 24/7 like that). I ran into a wall with voltage (not wanting to go over 1.4V) before I did with RAM, motherboard, or heat. Get an E8400 or an E7200 and overclock it.

Edit: You changed your order now, so it is an E8400. It was an E8500 before.

Skip the "temporary" card idea entirely! I only say this because I just made the same mistake at the beginning of the year. The then new cards were coming out soon (the GeForce 9 series), so I held off of the 8800 cards, and got an 8600 GTS as a temporary stopgap until the new ones were out. It was okay considering it's bad reputation, but it wasn't fast, and it was still unneeded spent money when I went and got an 8800 GT after the disappointing GeForce 9 series. Just get one of the cards you plan to dual up now and get the other later. You'll save money, which is really needed in case of dual card setups (2x the cost [plus a beefy PSU] but nowhere near 2x the performance).

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**Xtreme2damax** · July 14th, 2008, 22:44

I chose this heatsink instead which gives the same performance/results as the one refraction mentioned for half the cost:

Newegg.com - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

Now for my final question, what fan should I get/use for this heatsink?

Also I updated my wishlist/order in case anyone wanted to review it or make more suggestions.

__________________

PCXL-Fan · July 14th, 2008, 23:23

evga 8800GT Superclocked Edition $169.99 + $0.00shipping @ Amazon.com
Seller - BuyNow Inc - 97% positive rating of +2600 sales.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...6073897&sr=1-4

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**Xtreme2damax** · July 14th, 2008, 23:39

I won't be able to get the parts for another few months, however if the price is still that low for the 8800GT super clocked by the time I get the money I'll purchase that instead.

__________________

runawayprisoner · July 14th, 2008, 23:41

Newegg.com - MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

$139.99 AR $164.99 BR, and around $9 shipping.

As for the fan, grab this:

Newegg.com - Scythe DFS123812-3000 "ULTRA KAZE" 120 x 38 mm Case Fan - Case Fans

Or if you can't stand the noise, grab this one instead:

Newegg.com - Scythe SY1225SL12SH 120mm "Slipstream" Case Fan - Case Fans

You can never have enough CFM... :P

Last edited by runawayprisoner; July 14th, 2008 at 23:52.. Reason: Automerged Doublepostedededed

**Xtreme2damax** · July 14th, 2008, 23:58

I'm all set for the case fans for now, just concerned as to which heatsink fan I should purchase for the heatsink I listed.

Thanks for the suggestions.

__________________

**refraction** · July 15th, 2008, 00:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

I'm all set for the case fans for now, just concerned as to which heatsink fan I should purchase for the heatsink I listed.

Thanks for the suggestions.

dude, its a case fan which fits on the heatsink

advantage of the one i posted, its quieter (by far) and has the 4 pin cpu connector on it

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PCXL-Fan · July 15th, 2008, 00:05

Heh, never thought of looking on newegg cuz I thought you found the cheapest one.

I have seen the 8800GT OC at NCIX.com for $109 After rebate ($150 BR). Thats canada's second biggest online parts seller and not some obscure small one so there should be sales like that from well respected American websites for similar price.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Exodus

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July 14th, 2008, 20:39	#1
Xtreme2damax Mr. Technological Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Auburn, New York Posts: 4,426	New PC Build Well with me going back to college it's time for a new PC. I'll be applying the refund I get back from financial aid in addition to me considering accepting a loan towards a new PC build. I will be re-using some old parts out of an old PC such as my Dual-Layer DVD burner and Hard Drive until I get more money to purchase a new HDD/DVD-RW. Here is a basic wishlist of 50% - 75% of the parts I need to get up and running: Newegg.com - Once You Know, You Newegg I still have a heatsink, fans, tidbits to secure/screw everything in, Soundcard to worry about. What would you recommend for a heatsink/fan combo for that setup that will keep everything nice and cool? __________________

July 14th, 2008, 20:54	#2
refraction PCSX2 Coder $refraction's Avatar$ Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 10,037	Newegg.com - Thermalright Ultra-120 CPU Cooling Heatsink - CPU Fans & Heatsinks + Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING AF12025 PWM 120mm Case Fan - Case Fans certainly a win, providing your case is big enough __________________ http://www.pcsx2.net Intel i7 920 @ 3.4Ghz, POV GTX 570 1.3Gb, 1.8Tb HD space, 6Gb OCZ Reaper PC3-14400 Triple Channel Dont PM me for help, use the forums, thats what its for! My Chip16 Emulator RefChip16 http://code.google.com/p/refchip16/
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July 14th, 2008, 22:17	#12
refraction PCSX2 Coder $refraction's Avatar$ Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 10,037	Ars Technica reviews the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT: Page 2 that should answer your question __________________ http://www.pcsx2.net Intel i7 920 @ 3.4Ghz, POV GTX 570 1.3Gb, 1.8Tb HD space, 6Gb OCZ Reaper PC3-14400 Triple Channel Dont PM me for help, use the forums, thats what its for! My Chip16 Emulator RefChip16 http://code.google.com/p/refchip16/
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July 14th, 2008, 21:01	#3
Chrono Archangel 6BIT Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 8,090	Do you really need that motherboard? what features are you going to use that a 200$ mobo wouldnt give you? (seeing as youre getting DDR2 memory...) Other than that it looks good. Are you planning on OCing alot? __________________ 6BIT - Gaming, Emulation & Tech News

July 14th, 2008, 21:32	#5
Cheesus Curiously Cheddar Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Malta, EU Posts: 2,078	Save yourself some money off the motherboard and downgrade the CPU to a E8400, and buy yourself another 4850. The difference in overclocking headroom is negligible, but the performance in games will be very noticeable, especially at higher resolutions (or in Crysis). EDIT: Nvidia really isn't the best option anymore. It'd make more sense to buy a 8800GT for now, and when the 4870X2 comes out buy that. The 8800GT will do wonders in emulators (you really don't need more juice), and for games the 4870X2 will swamp anything Nvidia has to offer. All in all, for the motherboard the X48 is a more stable chipset anyways, so you can even crossfire a 4870X2 if you've really lost your mind. __________________ Desktop: Core i5 2500K @ 4.2Ghz; Radeon HD 6870 1GB; 8Gb 1333Mhz; 1.75Gb Seagate HD; 128Gb OCZ Vertex 4; 23" LS23A350HS; 24" LS24A350HS; Windows 8 Pro 64bit Lenovo x121e: Core i3 2367M; Intel HD3000; 4Gb 1333Mhz; 128Gb OCZ Vertex 4; 11" Matte Display; Windows 8 Pro 64bit

July 14th, 2008, 21:47	#7
Xtreme2damax Mr. Technological Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Auburn, New York Posts: 4,426	I have a question, how good are the ATI cards specifically the 4850/Newer ATI cards when compared to Nvidia's latest offering at nearly double the price of a 4850? What is the "King" of benchmarks and offers the best performance per dollar ratio? For some reason all this time I was under the impression that Nvidia was the best choice to go with. What would be a wiser decision for a motherboard? __________________

July 14th, 2008, 21:53	#9
Chrono Archangel 6BIT Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 8,090	Dunno why you would go for 3PCI-16... 2 should be plenty enough but like ref said, the Asus boards are prtty solid and are cheaper. NCIX.com - Buy ASUS P5N-T Deluxe 780I SLI LGA775 ATX DDR2 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 1PCI GBLAN Motherboard - P5N-T Deluxe In Canada. That board is only DDR2 however but seeing as your grabbing 4GBs of DDR2 I dont think you were planning on upgrading later? __________________ 6BIT - Gaming, Emulation & Tech News

July 14th, 2008, 22:11	#11
Xtreme2damax Mr. Technological Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Auburn, New York Posts: 4,426	How is a 9600GT compared to an 8800GT? __________________

July 14th, 2008, 22:18	#13
Princess Garnet From Love and Limerence Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Ohio Posts: 6,555	Cut the E8500 to an E8400. It's not worth an extra 1/4 the cost for the slight extra OC headroom you won't realize ever outside of the few using watercooling to take it to frequencies too dangerous for it anyway just to push it (it won't be usable 24/7 like that). I ran into a wall with voltage (not wanting to go over 1.4V) before I did with RAM, motherboard, or heat. Get an E8400 or an E7200 and overclock it. Edit: You changed your order now, so it is an E8400. It was an E8500 before. Skip the "temporary" card idea entirely! I only say this because I just made the same mistake at the beginning of the year. The then new cards were coming out soon (the GeForce 9 series), so I held off of the 8800 cards, and got an 8600 GTS as a temporary stopgap until the new ones were out. It was okay considering it's bad reputation, but it wasn't fast, and it was still unneeded spent money when I went and got an 8800 GT after the disappointing GeForce 9 series. Just get one of the cards you plan to dual up now and get the other later. You'll save money, which is really needed in case of dual card setups (2x the cost [plus a beefy PSU] but nowhere near 2x the performance). __________________ "The heart has it's reasons that reason knows nothing of."

July 14th, 2008, 22:44	#14
Xtreme2damax Mr. Technological Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Auburn, New York Posts: 4,426	I chose this heatsink instead which gives the same performance/results as the one refraction mentioned for half the cost: Newegg.com - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks Now for my final question, what fan should I get/use for this heatsink? Also I updated my wishlist/order in case anyone wanted to review it or make more suggestions. __________________

July 14th, 2008, 23:39	#16
Xtreme2damax Mr. Technological Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Auburn, New York Posts: 4,426	I won't be able to get the parts for another few months, however if the price is still that low for the 8800GT super clocked by the time I get the money I'll purchase that instead. __________________

July 14th, 2008, 23:41	#17
runawayprisoner Level 9998 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Java Posts: 9,377	Newegg.com - MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards $139.99 AR $164.99 BR, and around $9 shipping. As for the fan, grab this: Newegg.com - Scythe DFS123812-3000 "ULTRA KAZE" 120 x 38 mm Case Fan - Case Fans Or if you can't stand the noise, grab this one instead: Newegg.com - Scythe SY1225SL12SH 120mm "Slipstream" Case Fan - Case Fans You can never have enough CFM... :P Last edited by runawayprisoner; July 14th, 2008 at 23:52.. Reason: Automerged Doublepostedededed

July 14th, 2008, 23:58	#18
Xtreme2damax Mr. Technological Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Auburn, New York Posts: 4,426	I'm all set for the case fans for now, just concerned as to which heatsink fan I should purchase for the heatsink I listed. Thanks for the suggestions. __________________